Thanks jdw!
does that mean I have to buy extra software and re-author the whole project?? why on earth is DVDA not capable of doing this?
this is really annoying, to say the least. Why can I author a bluray that is then not burnable with replication standards?
Looks like my client cannot have his BD printed. Totally unacceptable, Sony!

I would guess that if you just want to duplicate the disk then you should be good to go. But, if you need to go the glass master route (for large replication projects) then you will have to pony up for the expensive options.

I did find a few replication / duplication companies out there that can handle the encoding part of the project for you. For example CDRom2Go. I've never used them before, but you might read over one of their blog posts to glean a little insight.

I also found that they can do the BDCMF Blu-Ray Conversion for $179 from your files. Follow this link and scroll down to the 4th service listing.

Thanks a lot for your research jdw! I'll see what they say at the plant, the usually go by glasmaster, as it's a 1500 piece edition. I'll see what we can work out in this case.
I still think this is unacceptable, forums are full of people with the exact same issue - their authoring software cannot do BDCMF for a glasmaster and they wonder what to do. I wish SONY had at least a plugin solution for DVDA, or would at least tell people about this. How on earth are we supposed to deliver projects to clients for large scale replication ??

The same company I mentioned considers "small" duplication projects to be 100 to 2000 units. This uses the same process you would use with your local burner and your files created with DVD Architect should be okay (you would still need to touch bases with them for confirmation).

When you need more than 2000 units, the glass master route (or "replication" process) is the standard method. This link describes the processes and what's involved: Duplication vs. Replication vs. Print Only

So the plant finally said they'd do a non glasmaster replication, problem solved. Still really annoyed about the fact that DVDA does not offer a BDCMF compliant authoring. So what am I going to do next time a client wants a BD master for large scale replication- refuse the job because my Sony software has to pass?
Very weird , all this...

Not at all. You could contract with the replication / duplication company to take your DVD Architect files and convert them to BDCMF compliant files for you. Or you could do what they did and buy the software (like ~$50,000? for Sony's Blu-Print or $3000 for DoStudio) required to create these files and do it yourself.

Not to sound flippant, but offering this sort of service isn't cheap and a $140 DVD / Blu-Ray Disc authoring package can't really be expected to handle this level of output. One the reasons creating a BDCMF compliant file set takes a higher end software package is AACS copy protection, which is required for glass mastered replication.

One other thing worth mentioning -- duplicated DVD / Blu-Ray discs will not be as player compatible as glass mastered replication -- the duplication process is the same as you would get on your own computer system. Glass mastered replication is as compatible as it gets.

Jim

I seem to recall that one of the main driving forces behind BluRay in the first place was to make it difficult for small-scale folks with a limited budget to deliver on this format. Sony and the studios saw how quickly the DVD copy protection mechanism was defeated, and they did everything they could to avoid a repeat.

Thanks for all the advice Jim!